Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Shores Fine Dry Cleaning has supported numerous local charities and non-profits during its 60+ years in business. Most recently, our staff has been manning coat checks at many of the fundraising black tie events in the Piedmont Triad. Working these events and interacting with other volunteers has provided our team an up close view of the important work that these organizations provide to our local community, which is why we are so excited about our Cleaning for Charity program.

We developed the Cleaning for Charity program to help give a little extra boost to the fundraising efforts of a few of the local charities we are partnered with. Our partner charities for 2017 are:

Winterlark, a Cancer Patient Support Program that helps patients and their families manage the distress and symptoms, navigate treatments, and develop and maintain a positive and healing outlook from diagnosis through survivorship.

Family Services of Greensboro, an organization that empowers individuals and families to restore hope, achieve stability, and thrive through quality support services, advocacy, and education.

The way it works is very simple.

New and current customers assign a charity to their account. To set up a new account or assign a charity to an existing account, please email us at CleaningForCharity@ShoresCleaners.com, call, or speak to a customer service rep any of our 3 locations and clearly state which charity to assign to your account.

During the Cleaning for Charity season, January 1 - February 28, 2017, 10% of the gross cleaning charges will be donated to the charity of choice. Gift cards redeemed during the program period will be included as purchases and eligible for the 10% donation.

Reporting and monetary disbursements will be made at the close of the business month following the conclusion of the program. All customer information including purchases made during this program will be handled by our point of sales system. Amounts raised will be shared on our social media outlets after the program concludes.

Our Cleaning for Charity program has the potential to raise thousands of dollars for three fantastic organizations that do so much to help those in our community. Please consider getting in touch with us to get started raising money for your favorite charity. If you don't already, please follow Shores on our social media outlets for updates and share information with your friends and family regarding these worthwhile causes.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

The fun part of a holiday dinner is the planning and preparation. I love choosing a menu, finding special linens and table décor, preparing the food, and getting all dressed up. But sadly all good things must come to an end, and after everyone leaves, I stand in the kitchen looking at all the dirty dishes to be washed and the pile of table linens that must be cleaned. I always attack the dishes right away because I don’t want to wake up to a messy kitchen, but I will admit that I throw the soiled table linens in a basket in the laundry room to deal with later. And many times, it’s a week or more later.

“That’s a bad idea,” Brian Harrell, General Manager of Shores, once told me. “The longer a stain is left untreated, the harder it is to remove.” Brian went on to explain that if a stain is left untreated for an extended period of time, it becomes part of the fabric. That means it can react with the fabric causing the fabric itself to change colors, so when you finally get around to cleaning it and are able to remove the initial stain, the fabric where the stain once was will now be a different color.

Our advice is to either wash your table linens or have them professionally cleaned and finished within 2-3 days of your party. For fabrics like polyester, pre-treat any stains, machine wash them in cold water, and while they are likely safe to dry on a low heat setting, we’d recommend that you line dry them. But if your table linens are after a holiday dinner, then it is likely that they are part of your finer collection. If that is the case, then we suggest you drop them off at one of our three locations where we will carefully inspect your linens, pre-treat the stains by hand, and use the latest in dry-cleaning and wet-cleaning technologies to restore them to the condition they were in prior to your big event. After cleaning, we will then iron them, hang them with tissue in the folds to reduce creases or hand-roll them if you choose, and can also mend any holes or tears or repair any loose or missing embroidering.

For additional tips on how to care for your table linens, please click here. For specific questions about your table linens, please contact one of our store managers. They are always here to help.